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“I plan to take the ordinary commercial flights. Now, everyone is offering use of their airplanes. Akala siguro nila bibili ako (Maybe they think I’m going to buy one),” he said.

But he referred to situations in which Cabinet secretaries may be taking non-commercial flights – flights which entail separate waiting time for their planes.

He said that during times their planes are given priority to take off, thereby possibly making other planes wait, they should express gratitude but insist on lining up.

“Just advise the CAAP (Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines) na, anyone of us, kung binigyan tayo ng priority to take off, magpasalamat tayo but we should also follow everyone’s travail. Pila tayo,” he said.

(Just advise CAAP, if you are given priority to take off, thank them but also follow everyone’s travail. Let’s line up.)

He expressed concern for plane passengers who might suffer cancelled flights just because their planes had to wait for an official’s plane to take off.

“'Yung mga eroplano na walang night capability and they will run after daylight while waiting for the 30 minutes for the president, baka ma-cancel ‘yung flight nila eh,” he said.

(The airplanes without night capability, they will run after daylight while waiting 30 minutes for the president, their flight might get cancelled.)

Duterte led the mass oath-taking of his Cabinet appointees earlier that day. In his inaugural speech, he also emphasized his directive to eliminate redundancies in government processes that burden citizens.

Duterte, seen by many as a populist candidate during the 2016 elections, brought back such sentiments again when he said in his speech, “I was not elected to serve the interests of any one person or any group or any one class. I serve everyone and not only one.” – Rappler.com

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Welcome to Rappler, a social news network where stories inspire community engagement and digitally fuelled actions for social change. Rappler comes from the root words "rap" (to discuss) + "ripple" (to make waves).